Man, that's a great game.

Astyanax

Asterix

Arkista's Ring

Actually, I've run into several that I really want to keep playing. I'm actually changing the rules to "at least 20 minutes" because the good ones are so far between that I don't want to cut them short.

Arkanoid

Hey, CeeKay, you may want to read this:

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=200675

Besides, to be perfectly honest, from a strictly monetary standpoint, we're not contributing a ton. What we do in this corner of the site is a drop in the bucket compared to the million frontpage views.

Actually... tally up how many people post regularly in the Non-Gaming Forums. I would be shocked if that number was more than 300. We have a lot of lurkers, and they would remain unaffected.

Plus, people were just saying, "Tell me where to write a check and I'll do it."

The way I understand it, the problem isn't pageviews or keeping the forums active. It's the same problem as every other site on the internet: How to monetize the pageviews that they're already getting.

So here's my take: Gaming Trend could start a Founders' Club. Pay $2/month (or $20/yearly) to become a "Founder." If you're not a founder, you still are able to see the Non-Gaming forums, but aren't able to post in them. There would be contests open to Founders, like beta key contests and free games. It also removes ads from the forums.

This isn't unprecedented. ArsTechnica uses a Subscriber model, and it works pretty well. If you're not a subscriber, you can post in any technical forum, but you can't post in the hangout-type of forums.

So let's say that only 5% of forum members join, or about 150 members. That's $300/month extra that you can use towards the site. It's less than a cup of Starbucks coffee per month, and if a forum member really appreciates the forums, it's a price they'll more than likely be willing to pay.

So what do you do with that extra cash? You integrate the forums and front page so that users have one login across the site.

You also create a weekly web series every Monday called "The Week In Gaming." It's just a recap of what happened last week in gaming, maybe 3-5 minutes long max. Find a sponsor for it (preferably a company that isn't in gaming just in case you have to say something critical about their company).

Now take that money that the sponsor gives you and give that to people like David who've been instrumental in fixing the front page content (he totally deserves it) to help lock them down. You'll get better frontpage views, which will continue to push people to the site, and then they'll get directed to the forums, which will help them decide to be founders, and so on and so forth.

Would some people quit because of the paid area? Maybe. But those people who would decide not to visit GT just because they're not getting everything for free aren't the kind of people who will help the site in the long run, IMO.

Yeah, DLC Quest's humor is a lot more pointed. The gameplay isn't as good, but it's sharper. Evoland? It's like they just said, "Hey, aren't old games great?" and called it a day.

I'll bet if I played Archon Classic on PC (which I didn't know existed until just now!) I'd love it.

Archon

I have no idea why that idea hasn't come back around. It's a no-brainer!

Is it the April issue? You sure it's not a belated April Fools?

Arch Rivals

"We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away. No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition."

RIP, Mr. Ebert.

Tech support / marketing for a small ISP.

Anticipation

American Gladiators

A dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way.

So by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filty animal. Is that true?

Amagon

I'm kind of annoyed that they think that social media will replace RSS. Um, what if I want to read everything that comes from a specific site? How is that supposed to happen?

Alpha Mission

All-Pro Basketball

Alien3

what about the Call to Power games, since they are technically Civilization without the name? 

Get out.

I actually bought Civilization: Call to Power because I was young and stupid. Towards the endgame, everything turned into wars against the super-powered lawyer units. Just like real life!

Metalhed still has you beat, but that's pretty awful.

No, no, correct order is 4, 2, 5, 1, 3. Civ 2 is great, but is just plain hard to play today. 4 carried over the best ideas from 2 and 3 and put them together. 5 is great now that it's patched up. 1 is still a great game, but just not as good as the others. 3 is crap on a cracker and still makes me angry.

I have a bunch from 2007: Oblivion, Civ 4, Freelancer and Fable.

Alien Syndrome

You shut your whore mouth.

was already wanting a 3ds but this makes it harder to resist. maybe hold out until next price drop.

Best guess? You might be waiting for a while. There are about 30 million active right now, and the sales are doing pretty good after the first price drop.

Alfred Chicken

Can I completely mess with the poll and say, "I bought a Wii U, so I already have"?

I'm probably just going to go PC. The indie games coming out on PC are incredible, and there is rarely a game that makes me wish I had a PS3 or 360.

Aladdin

Al Unser Jr's Turbo Racing

Also, a question: Should I up these to two a week? I have them written out until March, but I kind of like having the time to go back over them and refine them. I dunno. Thoughts?

Right, plus Abrams knows that you have to, I don't know, move characters around when filming dialogue, use real locations instead of pure greenscreening, make things exciting, stuff like that. An Abrams Star Wars could be fantastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQCP85FngzE